"WOERTH –BEGINNING OF THE END FOR THE SECOND EMPIRE" Woerth by mtncorg

Woerth is the small town where on 6 August 1870 the Third Prussian Army under Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm – practically under command of his chief of staff, General Leonhard von Blumenthal – punished the French I Corps under Marshal MacMahon – who would not only lose this battle, but also the even more traumatic Battle of Sedan but still end up as a President of the new Third French Republic. By defeating MacMahon, Frederick was able to cross the Vosges Mountains and link up with the other two Prussian armies in order to trap the French Army of the Rhine in Metz following the battles of Mars-de-la-Tour and Gravelotte-St Privat. The action in Woerth was not planned by either side. The French had arranged themselves on the heights directly west of Woerth and the forward units of Third Army, advancing in the wake of their victory at Wissembourg on 4 August, attacked the French positions disregarding orders that they were not to. The French more than held their own for much of the day utilizing their superior rifles to keep the Germans at bay, but overwhelming numbers – 81,000 versus 37,000 along with 300 artillery guns to only 100 – finally routed the French. French casualties were some 8,000 dead/wounded and another 12,000 missing or captured while the Prussians lost over 9,000 dead and wounded with another 1,400 missing. Key to the Prussian victory was the overwhelming artillery firepower they were able to bring to bear on the French. Surviving French troops were able to withdraw and they were eventually entrained to Chalons-en-Champagne where they would make up the core of the ill-fated Army of Chalons which suffered the ignoble surrender following the Battle of Sedan at the end of the month.

Of all of the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War, this battlefield might be the most concentrated “granite forest” as regiments of the German side were eager to erect monuments on the battlefield in subsequent years – the area became part of the German Empire following the war. Those monuments were added to after the area reverted to France as French memorials were added to the battlefield.